Thursday, August 25, 2011

He was perhaps the coolest cop that ever made it to the TV screens. He was certainly the Baldest one! While William Shatner was being all cool as TJ Hooker, and Peter Falk was hamming it up as Colombo, Telly Savalas was keeping it real with Kojak.

Kojak was a detective on the mean streets of 1970’s New York, as Telly said of the character: "he was basically an honest guy, tough but with feelings – he understood the criminals because maybe they grew up on the same kind of block."

The character was ranked 18th greatest TV character of all time by TV Guide. And it’s easy to see why.

Here, for the first time on DVD you can get the 4th and 5th series, and well worth the trip back in time they are too. He’s the coolest cat on the block – maybe just buy the DVD's so you can start emulating his “cool” at the next 70’s themed disco…

The show aired from 1973, to 1978. Kojak's Greek American heritage, the same as actor Savalas', was a big part of the series and the character and the series.

Interesting fact – which kind of reminds you about what the 1970’s was like - In the early episodes of the series, Kojak smoked heavily; but there was a growing anti-smoking campaign in America at the time and so the writers decided that Kojak had quit smoking. So.. he began sucking on lollipops as a substitute! What the Dentists of America would say about we aren’t sure…

He had a great catchphrase, "Who loves ya, baby?", yeah, who loves ya? We at DYR can only wish we were that cool. Perhaps we’ll crack open the lollipops, get in the wide lapelled suits and shave our heads and see where that gets us…? Or perhaps not.